Tuesday, 22 November 2011

Keep up the pressure - only weeks to go!

Just to keep people up to speed, the timetable for the Bill is as follows:
22/11/11 the Justice Committee will be debating the amendments which consist of some tidying up from Roseanna Cunningham, the inclusion of 'support for Terrorist organisations' and 'glorifying or celebrating events involving loss of life or serious injury' together with some detail on the review period from David McLetchie and matters relating to the review period; clarification on the nature of transgenderism; replacing ‘stirring up hatred against’ with ‘malice and ill will towards’ and replacing causing ‘fear and alarm’ with causing ‘a reasonable person to believe that the threatened or incited act, given the circumstances, was likely to be carried out’ from Patrick Harvie.

DecemberThen the process moves to Stage 3 which is consists entirely of the debate in full Parliament with a vote taken. There is no date set for this but it is likely to be in December. We plan to have a presence outside Parliament that day and possibly have a delegation going inside to see MSPs beforehand.As soon as we have the date we will sort out numbers and transport.

It is vitally important that you contact your MSPs as soon as possible.Please keep pressuring them to ensure that they realise that this Bill must not be passed.If they are already opposed to the Bill then please ask them about the Section 74 data that were destroyed and the issue of the allegations against Christine Grahame, Convenor of the Justice Committee which have still not been denied.There are template letters available on the Celtic Trust site at: